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Étirian
Étirian (étirana ''ɛtɪrænə) is an macrolanguage isolate spoken by the people of the fictional continent of Étir. It is one of only a few languages spoken on the continent. The origin of the language is unknown, and dates before the Fall; however, it is known that the language began to diverge after survivors speaking the language were isolated after the fall in discrete geographical regions, leaving them to evolve their own dialects, which they still have today. A person who speaks Étirian is referred to as an Étirian in English, or an ''étirla ''in Étirian. Every city on the continent uses the language in an official capacity; however, it is the dialect of the language used that differs from region to region. The 2000 Cassal census found there to be about 450 million primary speakers of the language across Étir, and 150 million primary speakers of the Iperion dialect of the language. Only 100 thousand people speak Étirian as a secondary language. Classification and Dialects Étirian is an ''a posteriori ''conlang that, if it did not exist only in a fantasy universe, could be considered to be a Romance language. It takes most sentence structure from languages likes French and Spanish, though verbs do not decline according to person like French (the ending changes only for voice, mood, number and sometimes tense). However, Étirian exists in a universe isolated from Romance languages, and therefore much of its core vocabulary is not shared with those languages. Étirian has, depending on who you ask, either seven or eight dialects: * Iperion (''dáiu canoná, DC) * Riverland (dáiu loíla, DL) * Issar (issarina, IS) ** Corellian Issar (issarina corij, IC) * Alcalan (alcalana, AL) * Aolian (aolina, AO) * Valettan (valeita, VA) * Nól Viraton (viratona, VI) Phonology Consonants Vowels Phonotactics The syllable structure of Étirian goes in the order of ©©V(V)©. * Syllables should contain a nucleus; however, they do not need an onset or a coda. * If a portmanteau word has two accented vowels adjacent to each other, only the first vowel keeps the accent except for if the second vowel is the adjectival 'á', in which case only the 'á' keeps its accent. * Syllables should contain at least one vowel. * A word cannot end in /ɾ/. * The diphthong /ks/ covers two syllables (/k.s/) when used in a word. * An infinitive of a verb must have at least two syllables. * The 're' ending of an infinitive verb must not be preceded by an 'a'. * A repeated consonant (e.g. 'tt') must be pronounced as the end of one syllable and the beginning of another - for example, the meaningless phrase 'esse' would be pronounced as /ɛs.sə/. Phonology of Dialects Iperion (DC) The pronunciation given on this page is for DC dialect, as it is the most popularly spoken. No changes are necessary. Riverland (DL) * The digraph 'rr' is always pronounced as /ɾ/. * The vowel /ɛ/ is pronounced like /ɛy/. Issar * The consonant 's' is allowed to be pronounced as /z/, and more often is. * The vowel 'i', when used at the beginning of a word and preceding a vowel, is nearly always pronounced as /dʒ/. * The diphthong 'iá' at the end of a word is pronouced as /ij/. * The second person pronoun is allowed to be pronounced with a /tʃ/ sound instead of a /t/ sound - that is, 'che' instead of 'te/tie' and 'chós' instead of 'tós/tiós'. However, it is still written the same. Corellian Issar * The consonant 's' is allowed to be pronounced as /z/, and more often is. * The diphthong 'iá' at the end of a word is pronouced as /ij/. Alcalan * The vowel /ɛ/ is pronounced like /ɛy/. * The consonant 'r' is always pronounced as /ʀ/. Aolian * The consonant 'r' is always pronounced as /ʀ/. * The consonant 'v' can sometimes be pronounced as /β/. Valettan * The vowel /ɛ/ is pronounced like /ɛy/. * The diphthongs 'iá' and 'ia' at the end of a word are pronouced as /ij/. Nól Viraton * The consonant 's' is allowed to be pronounced as /z/, and more often is. * The consonant 'p' is allowed to be pronounced as /pʰ/. Writing System Étirian uses an abugida writing system, but it can be written in a Latin alphabet for real-world convenience. Grammar Nouns There is no set ending for nouns in Étirian. However, due to a quirk in verb grammar, nearly any gerund can also be used as a related noun, which causes a lot of nouns to end with the letter 'u'. They can also be converted into verbs and adjectives, or vice-versa. Nouns take only number and definiteness, and are weighted towards suffixes. Quite often, words can be combined in agglutination to form new words, though this is not guaranteed as in actual agglutinative languages. Some nouns can have prepositions prefixed onto them to indicate a different meaning, or a specific type of that word. In order to form the plural of a noun, add the letter 'i' on the end. If the word already ends with an 'i', change it to an 'í'. Verbs Infinitives can end in -er, -ir, or -re, but not -are. This influences the way in which verbs decline: -er and -re verbs lose the ending when declining, but -ir verbs retain the 'i': for example, the present tense of 'póre' (to be able) is 'póe', but the present tense of 'adir' (to go) is 'adie'. Present Tense The present has no continuous or perfect aspect. It is formed by removing the infinitive ending and adding either an 'e' (singular) or a 'si' (plural). ('ser' and 'alir' are the only two irregular verbs in Étirian, and are demonstrated thus.) General Tense Étirian has a feature - the general tense - that can be used to demonstrate that a verb has no tense, i.e., that there is no indication of time. Sometimes, it may overlap with the present tense. It is formed by just removing the infinitive ending - however, -ir verbs retain their 'i'. Imperative Since the imperative has no time indicator, it is also demonstrated by using the general tense; however, there is no pronoun and therefore no person. It is possible to use a passive infinitive by affixing 'se' onto the end of the general tense verb: for example, 'adise' means 'be gone'. (For reference, the phrase 'ferise' can either mean 'be done', or 'go f*** yourself''.) Past Tense The past tense is formed by prefixing either the subjunctive part of 'ser' or 'alir' onto the present tense verb to indicate either the past continuous or perfect tense. (The phrase 'sá se' ('was being') can be contracted to 'seá' ('was') for convenience.) Other Past Tenses Parts of 'ser' and 'alir' can be included before the verb to indicate other past tenses. * 'Á sá' can be used to indicate a continuous and perfect past tense. * The part 'aie' can be affixed to indicate the pluperfect - for instance, 'á-t-aie' (which can be shortened to 'áta') indicates the pluperfect simple, and 'sá-t-aie' (which can be shortened to 'sáta') indicates the pluperfect continuous. Future Tense The future tense must be indicated by using a different suffix on the verb, the only instance in the language in which this happens. The letter 'e' or 'i' (depending on number) is suffixed onto the infinitive verb. (For reference, when the letter 'e' is repeated, it becomes an 'é'.) Other Future Tenses Parts of 'ser' and 'alir' can again be included before the verb to indicate other future tenses. * 'Á sá' can be used to indicate a continuous and perfect future tense. * The part 'aie' can be affixed to indicate the future pluperfect - for instance, 'á-t-aie' (which can be shortened to 'áta') indicates the future pluperfect simple, and 'sá-t-aie' (which can be shortened to 'sáta') indicates the future pluperfect continuous. Conditional Tense A unique subjunctive 'será' can be used to indicate the conditional tense. It goes immediately after the parts of 'ser' and 'alir'. It can be modified like any other tense to indicate simple, continuous and perfect aspects. Other Parts Étirian has a supine and a gerund form to verbs, but they are easily used. * The supine form can be made by taking the general tense and adding the adjective suffix 'á' to the end. In this way, you can use a verb as an adjective, but it can also just be an adjective. This is the form used to indicate the passive tense. * The gerund form can be made by taking the general tense and adding the suffix 'u' to the end. In this way, you can use a verb as a noun (i.e. 'the act of doing something'), but it can also just be a noun in its own right. The difference between a gerund and a noun often depends on the context. Passive Tense The passive tense can be made by using the supine verb instead of the normal verb in a construction. In the future tense, a special ending is required where the letter 'á' is suffixed onto the infinitive verb. In the passive tense, there is no way to tell the person or number of the verb other than the pronoun. Reflexive Verbs A verb can be made reflexive simply by adding the reflexive pronoun immediately before the main part of the verb. No other change is required. In this way, a verb can also be made to target another person by using a different pronoun than the one specified at the beginning. Pronouns The pronouns go as such: Syntax Negatives Nearly anything can be made negative, where it is appropriate. This is simply achieved by using the suffix '-ne' on any word. When making a verb negative, only apply this to the main part of the verb. In this way, verbs, nouns, pronouns, adjectives, conjunctions, and even prepositions can be made negative. For example, the word 'i' ('and') can be made negative to give 'ine' ('but'), and the pronoun 'ie' ('I') can be made negative to give 'iene' ('not me'). Verb Order A verb must be written in the format (pronoun)(supine)(conditional)(reflexive)(negative)(verb)(negative). For example, the phrase 'ie á será tiene adiene', which literally means 'I would not have gone (to) not you', or in better English, 'I wouldn't not have gone to you'. Subject Order Étirian uses the order SOV, unless the object is not a pronoun, in which case it uses the order SVO for convenience. Possessiveness Genitive structures will always follow the form (possessed)(possessor), and the genitive pronoun is formed by adding the word 'la' (meaning 'of') onto the end of the normal pronoun: for example, 'flúr ie-la' means 'my flower', or literally, 'the flower of me'. This can also be done with nouns: for example, 'al flúr tiérla' means 'the flower of the earth'. Note that while an article was not necessary when using a pronoun, it is when using a noun, and note that the hyphen is only used in pronouns. Reduplication cannot be performed with the word 'la', so a word already ending in 'la' must add it before ''the word: for example, 'al flúr la térla' means 'the flower of the tree'. Passiveness The passive agent is formed by adding the word 'la' onto the reflexive pronoun instead of the normal pronoun: for example, 'al flúr métrá mie-la' means 'the flower was placed (down) by me'. Adjective Order Adjectives nearly always end in 'á', and they are used in the order (noun)(adjective): for example, 'al flúr gianá' means 'the big flower'. Diacritics Étirian has only one diacritic, notated as an acute accent in the Latin alphabet, but which more closely resembles a full stop in their abugida. What is important to note is that the accent (known as a ''pó in Étirian) does not alter stress in any way, but rather alters the pronunciation of the vowel: á /æ/ é /ɛ/ í /i:/ ó /ɔ/ ú /uː/ The pó has the effect of making vowel sounds more pronounced overall, but this does not mean they are necessarily the primary stress of a word. Numbers Étirian counts in a base-8 number system. Its digits follow as such: 0 - nero 1 - une 2 - dose 3 - trese 4 - catre 5 - cinse 6 - sese 7 - sete 8 - otura From there, numbers are made by compounding digits together. 9 - otune 10 - odose 11 - otrece 12 - ocatre 13 - ocinse 14 - osese 15 - osete Below are the prefixes for counting double digit numbers. 16 - vicura (vici-) 24 - tricura (trici-) 32 - citrura (citri-) 40 - cícura (cici-) 48 - sisura (sisi-) 56 - situra (siti-) 64 - otiura (oti-) From there, numbers are compounded. For example, the number 113 (161 in octal) is written as 'otiura sisiune'. 512 - tilura (tili-) 4,096 - otura tilura 32,768 - otiura tilura 262,144 - milura (mili-) 134,217,728 - bilura (bili-) 68,719,476,736 - trilie (trili-) Above this number (1 trillion in octal) there are no useful words to use, so octal standard form is implemented instead. For example, 1x8^16 - une múltilá oturala aia vicurala (literally ‘one times eight to sixteen'). Example text Lexicon Some useful vocabulary in Étirian, and some not-so-useful vocabulary, to get a feel for how the language is. cuis - who cuide - what cuelá - which cucór - when (lit. cu-cór, 'that time') cui - where cuiá - why cuá - how cuanta - how much cu - that sol - sun tiér - earth súl - sky oro - water fór - fire ása - air cór - time eá - good (can be pronounced /ɛyæ/ or /jæ/) Category:Fictional Languages Category:Indo-European conlangs Category:Languages Category:Romance conlangs Category:A posteriori